The guided-missile frigate USS Gary (FFG 51) departed Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach for the last time May 21 after conducting her final ammunition offload.
She is the last of the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet frigates and is due to decommission later this year.
The Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates were designed originally as a cost efficient surface combatant used to protect warships and merchant marine ships, especially as anti-submarine escorts for amphibious expeditionary forces, underway replenishment groups, and merchant convoys.
However, they lack the multi-mission capability necessary for modern surface combatants faced with multiple, high-technology threats and have little capacity for growth.
The latest U.S. deactivation plans will retire all Oliver Hazard Perry-class frigates by October 2015, which will be the first time that the U.S. Navy has been without a frigate class of ships since 1943.
After more than 30 years of distinguished service, USS Gary is tentatively scheduled to decommission on July 23, 2015 at Naval Station San Diego.
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Image: US Navy